THAT’S AN ACHIEVEMENT

In an earlier post, I mentioned that WOW will allow for a multitude of play stiles.  Personally, I spend a lot of time soloing in Azeroth.  I belong to guilds on all my characters and participate in guild activities, but a majority of my time is spent finishing the different tasks I have decided to do.  I know other players who spend most of their time doing end of game raids and join guilds whose sole function is raiding.  There is no right or wrong style of play.

That being said, today I want to talk about achievements.  When Blizzard released the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, they introduced Achievements to WOW.  Achievements are self contained goals that you can complete for satisfaction, or titles, or sometimes for cool rewards.  Some achievements are as easy as reaching level 10 and some, such as “What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”, require you to complete at least a year’s worth of seasonal achievements.  They give players something to shoot for.  There are even websites dedicated to achievements, which will even tell you which player has received the most achievement points in all of WOW.
I like achievements and work to complete as many as possible.
Achievements are divided into nine categories; General, Quests, Exploration, Player vs. Player, Dungeons and raids, Professions, Reputation, World Events, and Feats of Strength.

• General-  These achievements are the ones that do not fit into any other category.  This category includes things like leveling (you get an achievement every 10 levels plus one for level 85), collecting pets or mounts, or eating different types of foods.  This category contains 67 achievements.
•  Quests-  This category contains achievements for completing quests.  It is divided into the different areas in WOW, as there are achievements for completing a given number of quests in a certain area.  There are also achievements for completing specific quests or objectives in the game.  This category contains 129 achievements.
•  Exploration-  These are the achievements you receive for finding all the areas in WOW.  Some of the achievements are easy, while others require you to explore the other faction’s territory (which can be dangerous to your health).  This section also includes special achievements for killing rare mob spawns.  This category contains 80 achievements.
•  Player vs. Player-  Achievements in this area are awarded for reaching significant levels in PVP play.  This category contains 227 achievements.
•  Dungeons and raids-  These achievements are earned by participating in Instances throughout WOW.  Instances include normal and heroic 5-man dungeons, 10-man raids and 25-man raids.  This category contains 539 achievements.
•  Professions-  There are achievements for advancement and tasks related to your primary and secondary professions.  This category contains 113 achievements.
•  Reputation-  We discussed reputation in a previous post.  There are achievements for achieving exalted reputations with various factions in the game.  This category contains 54 achievements.
•  World Events-  Blizzard has created “holidays” in WOW that correspond to real-world holidays.  There are special quests and achievements that can only be performed during these holidays.  This category contains 143 achievements.
•  Feats of Strength-  These achievements represent the past glories of Azeroth, and as such, they are very difficult – if not impossible – to earn.  They are worth no points, and unlike normal achievements, unearned feats are not displayed in the achievements interface.

I hope you find this guide helpful and I request any input from experienced players.  This blog is intended to be helpful to newer players.  Please ask any questions you have and we will do our best to answer them.